Undertaker buys Cork's landmark suburban Grange Bar in €1m-plus deal

Jerh O’Connor Funeral Homes are the new owners of suburban hospitality landmark The Grange Bar and Restaurant, in a deal valued at more than €1m.

The undertakers have also confirmed to The Echo that a planning application has just been lodged for a comprehensive redevelopment of their existing funeral home at Glanmire’s Hazelwood Centre, in the east of Cork city.

The Glanmire project will be the focus of their attention in the medium term, and the long-established Grange Bar will continue to trade as a licensed premises for the foreseeable future.

The Grange property — on a 0.54a site with 28m of road frontage and lots of car parking spaces — came to market in October last year following a decision by the owners, the O’Neill family, to put it up for sale. The property had been in their ownership since 1985.

Yet to reveal plans for premises

It’s now been purchased by another family-run business, fourth-generation undertakers, who have yet to reveal their plans for the premises.

The plans for Glanmire, however, will be available for the public to inspect as they have now entered the planning process.

In a statement to the The Echo, the undertakers said their aim was to create “a modern, state-of-the-art and fit-for purpose facility to serve the future needs of families in Glanmire and the surrounding areas”.

The statement said the proposed development “represents a significant reinvestment in the company’s footprint in Glanmire and forms part of a wider evolution plan of Jerh O’Connor Funeral Homes as a fourth-generation, local family business”.

Director Kevin O’Connor said they had been “proud to serve the Glanmire community since taking over the service from the late Mr Tom Barry, a respected and long-established funeral director, in the early 2000s”.

His brother and fellow director Brian O’Connor said Glanmire was “a very important community for our family business, and this proposed redevelopment reflects our long-term commitment to the area”.

“Our goal is to provide families with a modern, dignified and fit-for-purpose funeral home while continuing to offer the personal care and support that people have come to expect from Jerh O’Connor Funeral Homes.”

Number of funeral homes

The undertakers currently serve a number of communities across Cork and have premises on Coburg St in Cork city centre, as well as in the city suburbs of Wilton (Sarsfield Rd); Ballintemple (Boreenmanna Rd), Hazelwood in Glanmire, and in Mayfield (Old Youghal Rd).

It’s not clear at this stage if the newly-acquired Grange premises will be re-purposed as a funeral home.

Some recent pub sales in the city will see premises converted for alternative use.

Bull McCabe’s on the Airport Rd, which recently sold for €730,000, is poised for conversion into residential units by a husband-and-wife team with a track record of converting former pubs into living accommodation, while Reidy’s Vault Bar on Western Rd is the subject of a planning application for conversion into the city’s second Son of a Bun outlet, after changing hands earlier this year.